Finding The Light

Women are the highest growing population of incarcerated people. What would it mean if they came home to a community?

Everyday, Donna and her team at ALPOL operate as a crucial resource to their community. They meet women at the prison gates on the day of their release with a hug and a ride home. They help people find stable and secure housing, and connect them with other resources that allow them to support themselves and their families. 

Through Donna’s story, we discover that community organizations like ALPOL have a more important role to play in ending incarceration and achieving public safety than judges, prisons, police or parole officers. We also learn that Donna and her team played an integral role in the passage of the Less is More Act. Fully enacted, the new law will put New York at the forefront of shifting parole from being overly punitive to being supportive, focusing on making reentry effective and keeping communities safe.

Finding the Light is a co-production between Represent Justice and Donna Hylton.

A Little Piece of Light is a women-led organization and comprehensive support center for women, girls, and gender-fluid individuals who are directly impacted by trauma and involvement in the criminal justice system. They are people who have experienced the intersectionality of sexism, racism, violence, sexual abuse, incarceration, historical oppression, and persistent poverty. The organization was founded by Donna Hylton, a Represent Justice Ambassador and leading advocate for system and trauma-impacted women and girls.